Friday, November 26, 2010

November 26, 2010

Hey Everybody,

Another P-day down only 102 more to go ha.. No just kidding, I am glad to be out here because it is so important! I've read all your letters and I am so thankful for them. I appreciate all the support you give to me! It definitely boosts my spirit, the only thing that is hard to do is read them all ha .. which is a challenge I'm more than thankful for! .. My Branch President only wants us to read them after 9:30 PM so we don't get distracted. So between writing in my journal and asking how everyone (the missionaries in my Zone) are doing it gets pretty wild at the end of the day. I say, ask everyone how they are doing because Elder Jones and I were made the Zone Leaders this last Sunday, this is getting ridiculous, not ha .. by the time I leave the MTC at this rate I will have been made the 2nd counselor to the President of the MTC! (ha-ha) But Elder Jones and I are up to the responsibilities and will try to be the best missionaries we can be, to whom much is given, much is required. Thanksgiving was great here, not like being home but outstanding in itself! We had a moving devotional, then dinner, then a service project, then 2 more devotionals after that. I don't know if you would know the person who came to the morning devotional or not but his name was, I think, Jeffery R. Holland? And I guess he is a pretty big deal here. some kind of Apostle or something ha-ha!!!!!!! but being serious he was AMAZING! I could not even scratch the surface to tell you how strong the spirit was at this meeting. President Smith, the President of the MTC, said in all the times Elder Holland has come here he has never spoken such humbling, uplifting, loving, and challenging words. All I can say is Jeffery R. Holland is an Apostle of God. I wrote down in my journal everything I felt and he said so you guys will just have to wait to know what he said until I come home. Behind every good man, you find a better woman. Well I don't know about better in this case but just as loving and caring is Sister Holland. Sister Holland spoke to us and talked about loving her family. They came and sang in front of all the missionaries. Elder Holland said one of his granddaughters was 18 so I might have to just marry into that family after my mission haha .. Sister Holland also spoke on how much she loves us and even though we are not supposed to hug she would try to hug every single elder so I ran to get my hug- ha-ha! .. she loves us and bore a beautiful testimony about Elder Holland and her love for him. Thanksgiving was both a physical feast and a spiritual one also! .. Later we had the opportunity to make backpacks for children that are in need of them. I was soooo tired after because we worked soo hard and I wanted to do everything I could. The MTC made 33,000 bags in 3 hours, I think I made about 10 to 15,000 myself ha. It was AMAZING how great of a job we did. I'm still struggling with telling people where I'm from. So when they ask I come up with a different place I "hail" from. I tell people all kinds of things. like Whidbey Island or Ogden Utah or maybe even Tonga ha.. but I came up with the solution, I'm from Oak Powell City! ha .. Elder Smith, one of the Elders in the residence hall that I'm in, and I have made a commitment to each other that we would be part of the 25,000 club. It is just something we made up while we were doing push ups that night. If I do 40 push-ups every night while I'm on my mission, minus Sundays, I can do about 25,000 push-ups! It's just a little something funny that can bring me and this Elder closer and help me get through! .. but while we were doing our push-ups, Elder Jones my companion, was waiting to pray and lifted up his shirt for some reason and the other 2 elders and I started to laugh sooo hard! He is the hairiest man I have ever seen ha ha.. It literally looks like a shag carpet hah .. Elder Smith said, "you are not human, you are half ape!" sooo funny after a long hard day, the Lord blesses his missionaries. I love my companion haha.. Elder Orangutan!